〜In Search of Haku〜
by xX-AI-Xx
Summary: It's been two years since anyone had last saw Haku, and it is now up to Chihiro to find him. But Zeniba warns her that she may need to delve into worlds beyond both their knowledge. From Howl's moving castle, to Princess Mononoke's forest, Chihiro and No Face leave everything they once knew behind, to save the dragon that once saved them. Spirited Away x Ghibli classics crossover:)
1. An Unexpected Visit from a Dragon

Hi there! Thanks for reading :)

Just want to note that this is a Spirited Away continuation + Ghibli classics cross over.

I wanted to make it in the crossover section but since it only lets me choose one movie, I decided to put it in regular.

Hopefully its not a guidline breach but simply noting it as crossover with one doesnt do it justice :(

Have a great day ❤️

* * *

Chihiro trudged home slowly, her mind deep in thought.

_"Chihiro, I've liked you since middle school...will you go out with me?"_

_"I'm sorry..."_

_"...I heard that you've never dated, and that you always say no. Is it because someone else is on your mind?"_

Chihiro thought back to that day, nearly six years ago now. She and her parents had been preparing for the move to this town, and had gotten lost in the woods after a wrong turn. They had made it back safely to where they had left their car, but something about that day was foggy; calling at her from behind a thick cloud of mist. They had not met anyone, nor stayed for long, but upon reaching their new house, they had found it had been days since the original date they were supposed to have arrived. Her parents had shrugged and laughed the incident off, telling Chihiro that she was imagining things. But countless times in the night, she had passed their bedrooms and caught hushed conversation of that day and their puzzlement at the difference in time.

Since then, she had re-visited the forest countless times, trying to find her way back to that weird statue and ivy-grown wall for any hints. After nearly a year of searching, her heart was racing when she finally caught site of the familiar wall, but was quickly dissapointed at what awaited her. The walls had come crashing down to the ground, the rubble now a mere sea of bricks and ivy on the silent forest floor; the statue nowhere in sight. Still determined, she had walked around the perimeters of the rubble in search of what her father had called an amusement park on the other side, but emerged only with cuts and scratches from the branches. Her parents, distraught with worry at her late return had since banned her from entering the forest again, and neither did the young Chihiro have the heart to return anymore.

Something had definitely happened after moving to this town. She couldn't remember what or how, but the disorientation still held onto Chihiro's heart for the many years that came after. And probably for that reason, she could never whole-heartedly invest in a hobby or boy. She just wasn't interested.

Tadashi, the boy who had confessed to her earlier that day, had been undeniably cute; an up and coming player in their school's soccer team with a kindred heart and love for animals. Surely, he wasn't bad boyfriend material.

_But he wasn't who she was looking for._

Chihiro dragged her feet along the pavement, all the way home. Her feet heavy, as was her heart.

Who on earth was she waiting for then?

Chihiro slipped through the dark house, not bothering to turn on the lights as she felt her way up to her room on the second floor. Her father was on a work trip in Hokkaido, hours away from here; Chihiro had been relieved that they didn't have to move anymore. Her mother was probably at her usual yoga class, something she had picked up recently as her father rarely returned home on weekdays and there was nothing better to do.

Chihiro dumped her bag on the edge of her bed and sank to the floor. _What on earth had she forgotten? _It wasn't everyday that she was bothered by this missing memory. But at times like this when something had triggered them, she rocked back and forth in silence until the unknown pain in her heart eased.

It was mid winter, and the sun had already set. The dim moonlight in its place filled her dark room with a soft light, and in it's midst, Chihiro noticed something gleam dully out of the corner of her eyes.

With reluctant curiosity, she crawled across the room towards the gleam until she came to a stop at her wardrobe. It was far under the furniture; she couldn't tell what it was exactly from the lack of light, but she reached a hand out regardless and patted around the dusty carpet for the object, until her fingers came in contact with something soft. Pulling it out, she found herself holding a purple hair tie. Or at least, what had been. It had collected dust where it sat over the years; she didn't remember having worn it at all, let alone losing it. Chihiro picked the dust off the hair tie, a tad disappointed that it wasn't something more valuable, and pulled it over her wrist so she could wash it later.

She sighed, it had at least taken her mind off her worries. Instead, she was contemplating whether or not to start cooking dinner, when there was a sharp rap at her door.

Chihiro froze.

Her mother had no need to knock, they all had their own set of keys. The mailman or neighbor would usually ring the doorbell, and her father wasn't expected home for days.

Relieved at having left the lights off so she could pretend no-one was home, Chihiro crept to the front entrance and peeked out the side window.

"Tadashi?" Chihiro gasped, as she recognised the familiar school attire and hurriedly went to answer the door. In the country side, everyone knew where each other lived, but it was the first time Tadashi had made a house call despite having known each other for four years now.

"What are you doing here?" Chihiro called out after opening the door.

"H-hey. I...err...wanted to apologize. For today." She had never seen Tadashi stutter so much. He was usually calm and composed.

"Apologize? For what?"

"For what I said today. I mean, I'm not saying I didn't mean it. But you looked pretty...angry...afterwards, so..."

Oh. "I'm not angry Tadashi. I'm sorry if I confused you." Chihiro smiled warmly at the nervous boy. "It just triggered some memories I'm not too fond of...but I swear they have nothing to do with you."

Tadashi sighed in relief. "So that means you don't hate me?"

"Of-course not!" Chihiro exclaimed. "Did you come all the way here just to apologize for that?"

"Well...I didn't want to make things awkward between us at school..." Tadashi half-shouted as a sudden gust of wind rattled the windows and knocked the garden pot-plants over. Chihiro glanced up towards the sky, expecting to see an approaching storm, but there wasn't a cloud in sight. Her attention snapped back to Tadashi, as he suddenly clasped her hands in his.

"What-"

"Chihiro, there's something I want to tell you." Tadashi stared intently into her eyes, sending a wave of embarrassment down her spine.

But she never found out what he was going to say next. Instead, a looming dark silhouette suddenly descended from above them, and

_ate _

_Tadashi _

_whole. _

Chihiro frozen in shock; a stone statue as she tried to process that which stood proudly in front of her where Tadashi once stood.

A black dragon growled with a deep, resonating sound and crouched, like a lion ready to pounce.


	2. A Flood of Memories

_"What about you? What'll you do?"_

_"Don't worry. I'll go back and have a talk with Yubaba. I'll tell her I'm going to quit being her apprentice. I'm fine. I got my name back."_

_"Will we meet again sometime?"_

_"Sure we will."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise. Now go, and don't look back."_

* * *

Chihiro heard someone groan in the distance, their voice hoarse and tormented.

"Chu?"

"Yes, she's awake Boh."

"Ah...ah..."

"Yes No-face. She'll be quite alright. This is why I told you to only eat monsters I gave you permission to."

"Ah..."

Who was talking? Why did the elderly voice sound so familiar? And where was she? Chihiro's consciousness faded in and out as she tried to recall what had happened. She had got home...and Tadashi had come to visit and...

"TADASHI!" Chihiro's eyes snapped open as she bolt upright in bed, and came eye to eye with a mouse. A huge, flying mouse. She gasped, and instinctively leaned away from it.

The mouse's shoulder sagged, its eyes drooping in sadness. "Chu?"

"I'm afraid she won't remember us." Chihiro's eyes slowly followed the sound of the elderly voice to find a plump grandma sitting at the table; her eyes kindly and...familiar...

"Yet." The grandma winked.

Chihiro's eyes dropped to the purple hair tie still clinging to her wrist, and back up at the grandma. Then down, and up again a few times more, until realization slowly dawned upon her.

"Granny..." Chihiro whispered, her eyes wide open. "GRANNY!"

Flying out of bed, she ran towards Zeniba who swept Chihiro up in a bear hug.

"Granny! I can't believe I forgot about you!" Chihiro's voice came out muffled as she buried her face into Zeniba's shoulder. "And you got so...smaller?" Still holding her hands, Chihiro stepped back from Zeniba and studied her from head to foot. Everything else was exactly like she remembered, except for the height. She had remembered she used to come to granny's eye-level. Now, Chihiro was as tall as Zeniba's hair bun. The tears that had welled up in her eyes, overflowed and ran down her overjoyed cheeks.

"No child, _you_ grew!" Zeniba cackled affectionately.

"Chu." Chihiro spun her head around back at the flying mouse.

"_Boh_! I'm so sorry for forgetting you!" She ran back to the bed and swept the small bird and mouse who had his arms crossed, annoyed at having being forgotten, in a soft hug.

"Chu." Boh squeaked in forgiveness.

"That means..." Chihiro gently placed them back on the bed, and scanned the room. "No Face! I thought I heard you!" Remembering having heard his soft voice earlier as she woke up, she spotted the shadowy black silhouette hiding in the corner of the room. She outstretched her arms, inviting the familiar yōkai (ghost) in for a hug. But he didn't move.

"Ah..." No-face shook his head sadly. Despite not having any facial expressions to alter, he looked extremely down and mournful at something. Did he not recognize her?

"Granny, what happened to No-face?"

Zeniba sighed, her voice faltering. "Well, Chihiro...to tell you the truth..." No-face pulled his face back, sinking into his body and became a black ball of sadness. "It looks like No-face...ate your friend."

"Huh, my friend?" Chihiro looked to and fro from Zeniba and the No-face ball in confusion. It took a few seconds till realization hit, but when it did, she gasped in horror.

"No-face, you _ate_ Tadashi? But it was a huge drago-" Chihiro scanned the room again, finally noticing that someone important was missing.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

"Granny, where's...Haku..." Chihiro stared aghast at No-face. "Did you eat Haku too!?"

No-face popped his head out and furiously shook his masked face from side to side. "Ah...Ah..."

"He didn't eat Haku, don't worry. But he did eat a river dragon called Orochi who'd been terrorizing young girls and children not far from here." Chihiro sighed in relief, convinced as she remembered that No-face had initially taken the form of a huge frog when he had eaten the Aogaeru (green frog) in the bath house.

Relief washed over her at the memory. "That means he can spit them back out! Oh I was so worried!" She turned towards No-face, "Can you spit Tadashi out?" No-face shook his head sadly again, reminding Chihiro with a sinking heart that she had needed the dirt ball to force the eaten people out in the first place.

She smiled warily and patted the sad black ball on the head, or where she assumed it was. "You ate Tadashi because you thought he was harming me, didn't you?" No-face popped his face out again and peered up at her, ever-so-slightly nodding his head.

"It's ok, we'll just visit the river god again and ask for his help! Maybe Haku can help us?"

"Chihiro," called Zeniba, patting at the seat beside her at the table. "I need to tell you something about Haku. It's actually why we had to drag you back from the human world."

Chihiro straightened up from No-face and hurried towards Zeniba, immediately sensing that something was wrong.

In the midst of her joy at reunion and having retrieved her memories, she had forgotten to ask the questions that had sat, gnawing at the back of her mind.

Why had she forgotten about the spirit world?

It had been six years since then, why was she suddenly back now?

How many years had passed in the spirit world?

The gate to this world had been reduced to rubble, how had they gotten back here?

Was Rin and Kamaji still doing well?

But the most important one came to her lips first as she slowly sank into her seat.

"Granny...what happened to Haku?"


	3. Love Can Break the Spell

_The once white dragon lifted his eyes at the approaching footsteps, growling threateningly as they came into view. He was too tired to even lift his head from the ground._

_"Has he spoken yet?"_

_"Nothing apart from his name that he keeps repeating for the past few nights."_

_"What a troublesome beast." The man spat, his voice full of spite. "I can't believe that something this weak is revered to as a river god." _

_"I wonder what the Lady sees in this lowly spirit." Agreed the guard. _

_The first man stooped down to pick up a rock, and hurled it into the dark den. _

_The dragon, drenched in blood and dirt snarled as it hit his snout, but could do no more than bare his dog-like fangs. _

_"H-hey, stop that. He may be weak now, but he's still a god." A hint of fear tinged his voice. The man merely laughed and shrugged his companion off and they disappeared back the way they had come from. _

_Haku's eyes drooped shut again in exhaustion, and continued to repeat his true name in his mind as to not forget it. _

_Nigihayami Kohakunushi..._

_Nigihayami Kohakunishi..._

_...Chihiro..._

* * *

"Granny...where's Haku?" Chihiro clutched at her sinking heart, desperately hoping her intuitions were wrong.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have had to call you back here child. No ones seen him for the last two years."

"Two years?!" Exclaimed Chihiro. "How many years has it been since I left?"

"Two years."

"So..."

"Yes." Confirmed Zeniba. "It was right after you left."

"Do you know what might have happened?"

"On the contrary, I was thinking you might, Chihiro."

"Me?" Chihiro sat upright in her chair, wracking her brains for any clues. Whilst the event had been 6 years ago in the spirit world, it only felt like yesterday that she had left; the memories blazed freshly in her mind. _Once you meet them, you never really forget them, _Zeniba had said to her that night Haku had awakened.

"On the way back to the bath house before my test with Yubaba, I...I remembered who Haku really was. He was the Kohaku River_, _and he's the one that saved me when I nearly drowned in it when I was small!" Zeniba watched Chihiro carefully as Chihiro proudly recounted her memories. She gasped suddenly as she recalled their final promise, words gushing out like a broken dam. "Haku said he'll quit being Yubaba's apprentice! He remembered his true name, Nigihayami Kohakunushi, so..." her voice faltered. "He must've...something must've happened when he tried to quit then..."

Zeniba nodded. "So my hunch was correct. Two years ago actually, he had visited here but I was away on a rare occasion. No-face here answered the door in my stead, and told me when I returned that the dragon had visited. As you can tell, he can't talk so we tried to find him an bad human to eat, but we couldn't find any worthy enough of the punishment. When a no-face spirit eats something or someone, he can either replicate it or take their form and copy their abilities." Zeniba added when Chihiro was beginning to look lost. "So we thought the Orochi might give him speaking abilities, but instead all he can do now is fly, swim or make a big mess. Apparently the Orochi's personality was too strong for him to resist.

"Now that he accidentally ate your human friend, I thought he can perhaps change to a human form and talk, but it looks like he doesn't want to change into your friend's form." They both looked towards No-face who was still curled up in a ball in the corner. "It looks like he regrets his actions at least. So all I know after that, is that the station lamp saw Haku fly in the direction back to the bathhouse along the railway tracks."

Chihiro fell silent for a moment, deep in thought. There was only one who knew more information, and she was looking him in the eye. Or back. Or head. She wasn't too sure.

"No-face," Chihiro called out softly and went to crouch by his side. "I think Haku needs our help somewhere out there, and maybe only we can save him." It hurt to ask, but she persuaded herself that the Aogaeru had come under no harm in No-face's body. _"_Could you please, turn into Tadashi for a second and tell us what he relayed to you?"

No-face stayed silent and unmoving. She wasn't sure if he had heard or not, but she was getting ready to give up, when suddenly the ball shivered. His body began to twist and shrink, causing Chihiro to become a bit nauseous until he finally settled into the shape of a familiar boy. Except...

Chihiro could tell it was Tadashi straight away from the familiar school uniform, tell-tale name badge on his chest, and the brown waves of hair on his head. Besides that however, his arms and legs were the same fluid-looking black silhouette that No-face had been, and instead of Tadashi's face, sat the white mask of No-face.

"Ooh, good job." Zeniba encouraged from behind.

"Thank you so much No-face. And you too Tadashi, we'll get you out of there as soon as possible." Chihiro called in a louder voice towards No-face's heart; recalling that the mouth had been in that area back when he was in Aogaeru's form. "So...are you able to talk now?"

"Eh..." His voice was softer than when he had been a frog to Chihiro's relief, but the hint of Tadashi tugged at her heart with guilt.

"Se...n..." Despite taking the form and voice of Tadashi, it seemed he still had the memories of No-face.

"Yes! You can do it. Now, do you remember what Haku said?"

"Eh, eh..." No-face nodded. "He said...he needs to find a...stone. A flying..stone."

"A flying stone?" Chihiro asked Zeniba, but the grandma was silent, deep in thought.

'Flying..castle. He said he..needs..to find." No-face managed to finish. It disappointed Chihiro that she had no idea what he was talking about, but it was a step forward nevertheless. Zeniba popped out of her seat and began rifling through her cabinet without a word.

"Thank you No-face, you've been great help."

"Sen doesn't mind...if I use this body?" No-face murmured shyly.

"Does it hurt Tadashi when you do?"

"No...no.."

"Then I'm sure it's fine. Just make sure not to hurt Tadashi, alright?" He nodded eagerly. "Take good care of him for me until we find a way out for him." Chihiro patted his now definite head.

"Aha!" Called Zeniba from the lounge area, where she held open an old-looking book which was frayed at the edges. "He must be talking about Laputa, the floating castle in the sky!"

"A _floating_ castle?" Repeated Chihiro in awe whilst Boh squeaked excitedly in the background.

"It looks like we have a clue as to where Haku might be, but..." Zeniba sighed heavily and peered at Chihiro over her small reading glasses, shutting the book with a thump. "You're going to have to leave both the spirit and human world and go into worlds even I have never been to before. Because of the law of this world, I can't leave it. But you should be able to cross into them since you're originally not from here. Think about it carefully, Chihiro. What will you do?"


End file.
